Positiva Records

This site isn’t as much about reading than it is about listening. More Winamp than website, it focuses its attention on the music with an integrated streaming audio player sporting a customizable playlist. The navigation even mimics the iPod’s sliding animation.

Onyro have been working with EMI since 2000 and while they are the first to admit that working for the label is a dream gig the expectations that come with it are also quite daunting, “designing the site for a label which has artists such as Paul Van Dyk and Deepdish, people’s music we listen to everyday, was very exciting and we knew we had to try our best. The positiva project started about a year ago with initial designs being sent back and forth. Positiva has a huge heritage from the early UK Dance scene and many of us can remember their logo from record sleeves.”

Most of the time was spent developing the audio player which initially handled video playback. Due to conversion issues Flash video was replaced with RealVideo and Windows Media playback. “EMI couldn’t convert the videos to Flash for launch”, says Anthony Kyriazis, Onyro’s creative managing director. “EMI is looking into switching video technologies by the middle of this year and will focusing on using Macromedia Flash technology.”

Comments

I remember looking in awe at some of the graphics & design Kyriazis would produce on Onyro back in the day, so I clicked through to the Positiva site with some interest. Pretty uninspiring. The bland, grey, soft-shadows-everywhere look has been done to death, and the header looks like it was designed as an afterthought. Its competently done, I just expected more. I guess all the time really did go into the media player, which EMI bailed on, probably leaving them with even less time. The stock phpBB subSilver template for the forums is also disappointing, its always a shame to see considerable effort go into the look of a site, only to leave the forums (where all the passionate users spend 99% of their time) looking absolutely stock standard.

Agree with luke. While I like the idea of the site being more media player than website,the first link I clicked was the forum and was sorely dissapointed to see something so completely disconected from the rest of the site. It looks like it’s been rushed for delivery and a bunch of good ideas have fallen by the wayside in order to meet the deadline.

somewhat pretty to look at, but annoying to navigate and read. rubbery scrolling makes it difficult to scroll and scan (perhaps also due to small content areas), playlist drag-and-drop seems tempermental, and so many links jumping to external pages breaks the experience. but that’s just my opinion…

somewhat pretty to look at, but annoying to navigate and read. rubbery scrolling makes it difficult to scroll and scan (perhaps also due to small content areas), playlist drag-and-drop seems tempermental, and so many links jumping to external pages breaks the experience. but that’s just my opinion…

Agree with luke. While I like the idea of the site being more media player than website,the first link I clicked was the forum and was sorely dissapointed to see something so completely disconected from the rest of the site. It looks like it’s been rushed for delivery and a bunch of good ideas have fallen by the wayside in order to meet the deadline.

I remember looking in awe at some of the graphics & design Kyriazis would produce on Onyro back in the day, so I clicked through to the Positiva site with some interest. Pretty uninspiring. The bland, grey, soft-shadows-everywhere look has been done to death, and the header looks like it was designed as an afterthought. Its competently done, I just expected more. I guess all the time really did go into the media player, which EMI bailed on, probably leaving them with even less time. The stock phpBB subSilver template for the forums is also disappointing, its always a shame to see considerable effort go into the look of a site, only to leave the forums (where all the passionate users spend 99% of their time) looking absolutely stock standard.